Clip-on hair extensions

My friend just got hair extensions and they looked so fabulous. She told me she was wearing clip-on hair extensions which she purchased in Burnaby from Abantu. She told me she paid around $200. Two days later I went and bought some myself. The saleslady was quite helpful and told me the ones that don't have the clips sewn in yet are better quality hair,and also less expensive but I'd have to do some sewing and cutting as it just comes on one super wide piece called a "weft". The weft is basically a long piece of "ribbon" with hair attached to it. Like a very wide beaded curtain, but you need to cut the width to match your doorway. But I was too chicken to sew them and cut the pieces myself, as I didn't know how wide to make each one and so on and so forth. So I got the 18" seven piece clip on set. The total I paid was $180.80. I absolutely loved them. So now that I could use my set as a "pattern" I decided to buy the unclipped hair and make another set myself, but this time a shorter length, so instead of going to Abantu where the unclipped hair is $90 and each clip is $2 (you need 17 clips to make a seven piece set) I decided to drive down to Sally's beauty supply in Bellingham. The hair there is $74 (real human hair) and the clips are three for $1.99. The clips they sell at Abantu for $2 each are actually better, but the Sally's ones do the trick. I decided with this second set, I would cut the hair short. Big mistake that was. I thought it would be easy to cut, but easy it is not. I think I'm going to have to take them into my hairdresser to fix this botch job.

This is my friend's hair:


Anyways, the extensions are a lot of fun to wear, as they don't damage your real hair, and in five minutes you can really change your look. I think the long extensions I got were a little too long as it's difficult to "blend" my real hair into the fake hair, I do one of those half hair up type hairdos, so it makes it look a lot more real. I've only worn them out in public once, and I got tons of compliments on my hair.

North Face sample sale in Richmond, H&M in Coquitlam Centre

I finally checked out the North Face sample sale in Richmond. The sample sale goes on about twice a year, and it's next to the Brick on Alderbridge. Everything is 50% off of regular price. They are sample sizes, so it's basically mostly medium sizes. I'm not really a big fan of North Face, so to me, even if it was 75% off I probably wouldn't be that interested, but my friend went crazy and dropped a few hundred buying some outdoorsy gear. What I found interesting was that they sold some dresses, like the kind you might see at Express or Banana Republic. I thought that was a little strange. Kind of like Express selling thermal underwear or Banana Republic selling sleeping bags.

While I waited for my friend to comb the racks, I was just observing how some people get at these sales, this one family literally hoarded a bunch of coats, and the whole time I was there, they would not give any of them up and kept trying them on MULTIPLE times and hogged the one mirror in the store.


So checked out H&M in Coquitlam Centre on Saturday. IT WAS NUTS. It's my second time going. Each time it's cause a friend was visiting from out of town and wanted to check it out. The line up to try clothes on is literally an hour. To buy, the lines are long, but they move fast. But if you plan on going there, wear a tank underneath, and if possible, wear a skirt or something so you can try on pants in the lingerie section instead of lining up for soo long. Or better yet, go on a weekday. There was some outdoor concert in the parking lot on Saturday so they blocked off about 80 parking spots, so I was literally circling for 15 minutes trying to get parking, then someone STOLE my spot. Then in the mall, it was so crowded, and everyone was so grumpy so I ended up getting grumpy too. At H&M it just got too busy, so I decided to walk around the mall while my friend lined up to try stuff on. Apparently I was moving too slowly for some cow at Jacob (there was people in front of me, so it's not like I'm going to plow them down). Anyways, as she walked past me, she said, "GAWD", really rudely. I was feeling bitchy, so I loudly asked, EXCUSE ME? and she ignored me and walked into the dressing room. That kind of put me in a worse mood.

If you are interested in getting Christian Louboutin, the shoes with the sexy red sole, but don't want to pay the hefty price tag, Le Chateau has some look alikes for around $69.

Saltlik on Alberni

I came here on the labour day long weekend for a quick drink with some friends. At 9pm, there was only two other tables. The other customers were a table of asian exchange students and a caucasian couple. The decor is very nice here. I only had a vodka soda, not too hard to screw that up and a couple shots of Van Gogh Espresso vodka (YUM). Despite the fact it was not busy at all, when the couple left, they got no thanks, they were completely ignored by the staff. Our service was good though, but because it was so quiet in here, I doubt I would go back again. The bathrooms are upstairs. It's quite nice looking inside, and the staff are good-looking.

My understanding is that it's owned by Earl's, and it's an experiment to see how well they do with a higher end restsaurant. If it does well, they plan to open more.

Goldfish in Yaletown

Back in June we walked past Goldfish in Yaletown and after taking a look at it from outside, we decided we wanted to go back to check it out. So in July we tried to make reservations but was told it was fully booked. I then tried again the week after that and was again told it was fully booked. So I asked the hostess what's up with that, and she told me they only book half the restaurant since they just opened and they want to get more organized before booking more than half the restaurant. Two weeks ago I tried to make reserations for six people for Saturday night and it was no problem. So I thought, they're organized. After making the reservation and letting the rest of the party know, I went on to dinehere and read these bad reviews. I thought to myself, well, give it a chance. So my friends also raed dinehere, so we decided to eat an early dinner elsewhere first, just so we don't drop $60 on food alone. We all ordered either appys or dessert or both at Goldfish. And of course some drinks. The appy's I had were overpriced and unappetizing. Six non-fresh slightly stinky oysters for $19. The wine and drink selection is mediocre at best. The ambiance is nice, and the outdoor patio area in the back is also really nice. The staff are nice and friendly, but the service is slow. The manager/maitre'd was walking around just talking/socializing, but not actually helping the waitstaff so that was annoying. I mean, I know it's tough to make small talk with random strangers, but it was frustrating because the service was so slow and there was obviously problems getting food and drink and taking orders in a timely manner, yet he didn't seem to have any sense of urgency.

Someone wrote in one of the reviews it is a place to be seen, but I really don't think so, there were a lot of tourists, and I saw two tables of seniors.

The decor is definitely impressive. It does not quite feel like you're in Vancouver. In the bathrooms instead of paper towels, they have terry handtowels, but they were cheap old ones that you can pick up at the dollar store at three for a dollar. They should use the thick paper towels instead.

We'd probably go back there for a drink, but I think I would prefer to go to George, they have a better selection of wines and cocktails.